Matt Yglesias

36 Responses to “Can McCain Say Anything Accurate?”

1. El Cid Says:
   September 15th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

   He didn’t say we were the largest exporter, or exported the most. He said we were the “Greatest”! USA! USA! USA!

2. tinisoli Says:
   September 15th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

   Now watch: Obama’s campaign will point out another McCain falsehood, and the right wing will say exactly what El Cid just wrote, only they’ll mean it.

3. James Gary Says:
   September 15th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

   Note to readers: When reading the sentence

   it’s not true Germany exports more

   please add a hyphen (or better still, a period) between “true” and “Germany.” Otherwise you are likely to assume the meaning is the opposite of what Krugman (and, I assume, Matt) intended.

4. calling all toasters Says:
   September 15th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

   And he’s been saying we give away $700 billion in foreign aid, which would be true if we counted every dollar 30 times. But perhaps American dollars sshould be counted thirty times, as they are also the greatest.

5. anonymous Says:
   September 15th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

   I believe you pointed out that McCain has no respect for the American worker. The reason we need immigrants to pick lettuce in Huma, according to John McCain, is because no American worker could do it for a full season, even if you paid $50 an hour.

   http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/09/the_economics_of_50_lettuce.php

6. rab Says:
   September 15th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

   yes.

7. Njorl Says:
   September 15th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

   “Can McCain Say Anything Accurate?”

   Theoretically, I’d say it is possible. I believe he avoids it on the grounds that it could be habit forming, and cost him the election.

8. Bobby Smith Says:
   September 15th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

   John McCain says Sarah Palin knowns more about energy than “anyone in America.”

   LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO

   Sarah Palin says Alaska produces 20% of the U.S. energy, when in fact it is less than a fourth of that.

   LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO

   This is a case of one lie disproving another lie, which I find amusing.

   McCain/Palin thought process:

   1. I am not a very intelligent person and I don’t know much the issues.

   2. Americans, by and large are ignorant and will believe anything I say.

   3. I KNOW! I’ll just say whatever comes to mind that sounds good at that exact moment without regard for accuracy or truthfullness and the stupid American people will never know the difference. They’ll even start to believe me if I repeat stuff.

   4. I bet I’ll even have idiots log onto to blogs (cough…E. O’Neil…cough) and try to argue my lies for me.

   5. Boy, it really is a good thing the American people are so stupid otherwise I’d never get elected.

9. Glenn Says:
   September 15th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

   Depends on how you define “export.” If you look at those WTO figures you link to, Matt, it is true that Germany exports more merchandise, but we export more services and combined we do outrank Germany. Of course, the EU taken as a whole outstrips us in both.

10. Jeffrey Davis Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    What’s the over/under for a McCain Health Crisis which forces him from the race?

    I’ll say September 24.

11. Notorious P.A.T. Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    the greatest exporter, the greatest importer

    Is it possible to be both? Just wondering.

    Can McCain Say Anything Accurate?”

    His campaign says things that are accurate. “This elction isn’t about issues”, “we’re playing to win this time” etc.

12. Al Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    You have to wonder if anything they’re saying is true these days. I mean, why does Palin even bring up the eBay lie or the Bridge to Nowhere lie or the Personal Chef lie? I guess it’s b/c that’s all they’ve got!

    Also, Craigslist founder, Craig Newmark, recently wrote about this site on the Huffington Post. I thought it sounded like a great fusion of politics and technology – and worth passing along:

    http://ObamaTravel.org — real grassroots democracy

    “Hey, this is a good example of genuine grassroots democracy:

    http://ObamaTravel.org is a platform that connects volunteers who want to travel to a swing state with financial sponsors and swing state host families. It’s sort of a political hybrid of craigslist and Team-in-Training – volunteers post profiles and solicit sponsorship from their family and friends. Sponsors can see their donations in action by following the activities of their volunteers.

    … and let’s remember that “community organizing” is pure grassroots democracy.”

13. SHF Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

    …but if McCain wants to talk about this stuff, he should say something that’s true.

    Uhhh….why should he start now? He’s flip-flopped so many times, I can’t even count. Matter of fact, now I’m just to the point that whatever he says, I assume that it’s untrue.

14. right Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

    Germany’s only larger if you only look at merchandise exports. Most common definitions of “exports”, including the one in the link, include services, which puts the US on top. McCain is not being inaccurate when he says we are the world’s “largest exporter”.

15. CParis Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

    McCain is starting to sound like my uncle, about 3 months before he was diagnosed with Alzheimers.

16. Richard Steven Hack Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

    While everybody, even including Fox News according to Matt, is noticing that McCain is a serial liar, the reality is that the polls have him in a dead heat with Obama.

    The reason for this is that everyone knows all politicians lie, and therefore nobody cares.

    Once again, Matt has yet to deal with the issue of why Obama is not twenty points ahead of McCain at this point in the race – and how Obama is actually going to make sure he WINS at the end point.

    Meanwhile, the US is ginning up a war with Pakistan – as if Iran wasn’t enough – and Matt has been mostly ignoring that fact in favor of funny remarks about the bitch from Alaska.

17. Swan Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

    Adidas, Porsche and Nivea are all German– who knew? All that time you thought you were making some American guy rich by buying Adidas stuff, you were actually throwing it all over to Germany.

18. pasolini Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    #5 do you think you could afford lettuce if we paid $50 an hour to pick it?

    #14 you are going to have a hard time documenting “services” exported. Most people in IBM doing services overseas are overseas. And IBM India and China are growing at a rapid rate while the rest of IBM is shrinking or staying at current levels at best.

19. Matt Says:
    September 16th, 2008 at 10:04 am

    Not sure about the facts on this one, BUT McCain is saying anything right now. Literally… if you pay attention to him, he just makes these broad, almost wacko sounding promises. It’s one thing to be a ‘politician’ which usually makes people sick. But, it’s even worse to just make stuff up and lie to get a vote. He lies (or is confused) about Palin’s record (no earmarks as gov., bridge, plane, chef, troopergate). He lies about Obama’s record (taxes for middle class, lipstick, kindergarten), and I’m not sure he even gets his own record right! What is his presidency going to be like? If anyone thinks that he is NOT lying or is not confused (not sure which is worse), then I am even more scared for the people of this great country.

20. battery Says:
    January 17th, 2009 at 10:23 am

    laptop battery
    laptop batteries

21. laptop battery Says:
    February 8th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

    laptop battery

22. viagra Says:
    March 11th, 2009 at 4:21 am

    Great site. Good info

23. zyban Says:
    March 12th, 2009 at 10:59 pm

    It is the coolest site,keep so!

24. xanax Says:
    March 14th, 2009 at 5:02 am

    If you have to do it, you might as well do it right
    xanax

25. tramadol Says:
    March 17th, 2009 at 2:20 am

    Great site. Good info
    tramadol

26. brand viagra Says:
    April 2nd, 2009 at 5:00 am

    Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
    buy cheap viagra

27. viagra brand Says:
    April 3rd, 2009 at 4:02 am

    Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
    cheap brand pfizer viagra

28. cheap viagra Says:
    April 9th, 2009 at 4:58 am

    Very interesting site, Hope it will always be alive! viagra

29. Get Your Ex Back Says:
    April 9th, 2009 at 7:02 pm

    Not that I’m totally impressed, but this is a lot more than I expected for when I found a link on Furl telling that the info here is awesome. Thanks.